This blog post reports from the APPI 2012 conference in Coimbra, Portugal. The theme of the conference is “Motivated Teachers make a difference” – I’m updating as I go, so apologies for any typos, I’ll try and clear those up later.

The abstract for this session says “Teachers’ motivation increases through understanding how their students’ learn and how to help them achieve success” – which I’ll admit to a certain amount of cynicism regarding. Not that I don’t want to better understand how my students learn, but I’m not sure it increases my motivation per se.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see the strategies for making learners more effective learners!

So here we go:

Session aims:

Describe a model of motivation

Share examples of teacher motivations

Idenify importance of learner attributions

Define language learning strategies

Review research on effects of language learning strategies.

Model of Motivation:

MOTIVATION = VALUE x EXPECTANCY + ATTRIBUTION

Value is the value that you attach ot the thing you’re doing. Expectancy is whether you think you’ll achieve your goals – we don’t like appearing weak or unsuccessful, so expectancy of success is important. Attribution is – to what do you attribute your success? What are ther easons for your success, are they internal, i.e. your own work or external – work done byothers. Internal attribution is more motivating.

What motivates teachers:

Value – I love my subject

Expectancy – I want and expect my students to learn

Attribution – I know what I can do to help my learners become effective learners

Examples of Expectancy: seeing learsner make progress / seeing learners get engaged in the subject / inspiring learners / helping learners make more of an impact on the world / seeingn learners apply the knowledge successfully

Examples of Attribution: knowing learners have the skills and ability to succeed / knowing that you know what you’re talking about / personal confidence

Student Motivation:

Value: Is English interesting and enjoyable?

Expectancy: Can I really learn English?

Attribution: Why am I a good (or not) English learner?

Learner attributions types: luck / ability / own effort. Luck, belief that the grade on the test was a fluke – not really a valid thought process. Ability – belief that “I just can’t learn language”, or that language learning is genetic… Own Effort – this is the one that we as teachers can actually influence and does actually impact learning.

Learning strategies:

thoughts and actions that learners use to help them complete a task

ways of understanding, remembering and recalling information

ways of practicing skills so that they are mastered more easily

Many learning strategies are invisible because they occur within the mind, but by talking to learners about these strategies we can help our learners be more aware of their own thinking and their own learning processes.

(Editors note: this seems to correspond to the movements from Unconscious incompetence to Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence to Unconscious competence. I forget where that comes from.)

Learning strategies are not:

fixed or permanent – they can be changed or evolve over time

teaching strategies

learning styles

used only by “good” learners

always good strategies – the same strategy can work in one situation, but not in another.

(Ed: I conclude from this that learning strategies are context and learner dependent)

What the research says:

Using a variety of appropriate learning strategies is correlated to higher self-efficacy. It’s important for learners to feel as though they can succeed at the task.

Successful strategy use correlates to motivation. If learners believe they have the abilities or skills, they believe they can succeed, they are motivated.

Using and reflecting on strategies develops meta-cognition and self-regulation. Better understanding of what helps you learn, helps you to control your learning process, thus making you a more efficient learner.

Strategy instruction improves academic performance

Instruction needs to be explicit, not implicit.

Learners need to develop meta-cognition.

Transferring strategies to new tasks is difficult, so needs to be taught. Learners tend to think they need to start again from scratch and need to be made aware that skills are transferrable.

Learning strategy instruction may need some L1 instruction. Some concepts require a certain language ability in order to be expressed and understood.

For more information on learning strategies for language teachers the following website: www.calla.ws has handouts and more information.

If you want a good reference book for Language Learning Strategies, you should try and find “Language Learning Strategies: what every teacher should know” by Rebecca Oxford. It will give you a very good overview of the area.